Playing Against Those Merciless Maniacs

Getting lucky is always a factor in tournament play, especially in low-limit no-limit hold'em tournaments, where maniacs frequently push in all of their chips before the flop. If I am playing in a rebuy no-limit hold'em tournament, such as those at the Orleans poker room, that has a $20 buy-in and unlimited $10 rebuys for the first hour, I usually am willing to gamble with a maniac when I have any kind of decent hand – and for certain when I have a premium hand, especially if I plan to rebuy. If you play these low-limit tournaments, remember that most of your opponents are prepared to rebuy several times and take the add-on option.

In freezeout tourneys, maniacs also can pose quite a problem. They can be extremely difficult to play against because you can't replace those precious chips by rebuying if you lose them. The maniac not only jeopardizes his own chips, he jeopardizes yours, as well. You simply have to play tighter against him. Unfortunately, there is no defense against a maniac putting a big beat on you when he draws out against you. I have suffered some of my worst drawouts from maniacs when I misjudged the strength of their hands and gave them too much action. Players tend to give a lot of action to these maniacs – and they deserve more action than tighter, more conservative players, but you still have to use excellent judgment. Because maniacs are very hard to read, it's hard to put them on a hand. Therefore, you may find yourself putting in more action than you should when a ragged flop such as Q-4-3 comes off. You think it's a great flop for your pocket kings, only to find that the maniac has raised with Q-4 suited and winds up beating you with two pair.

Just remember that even a maniac won't jeopardize his entire stack with a totally useless hand, so if he continues to raise you, slow down. Remember that your best tournament strategy isn't necessarily to get full value from every hand in every situation – it is to survive. If a maniac puts you in jeopardy by forcing you to put in too many bets with either your medium-strength or premium hands, be careful. Tend to do more check-calling. Even pocket aces are not invincible.

One of the biggest dangers in playing against maniacs is that they may herd you right into the nuts. For example, you put in an aggressive reraise preflop against Maniac Mike. You have him beat, but you get picked off from the rear by someone who has an even better hand. Maybe you are playing a K-Q against Maniac Mike's early raise and the flop comes K-7-5 unsuited. Mike fires in a bet and you immediately raise him. Then, the opponent sitting behind you, who cold-called the two raises before the flop, puts in a third bet here. Kiss your K-Q goodbye; it just can't be any good. When you're caught in a whipsaw between a maniac and a solid player behind you who has called the preflop raise, you must be very cautious. Too often, the maniac will put you on the defensive and you simply will have to give up lots of medium-strength hands rather than risk your unreplaceable chips.

The good news is that sooner or later, Maniac Mike probably will self-destruct as the result of his overly aggressive tactics. The bad news is that sometimes he won't. On more than one occasion, I have seen a maniac win a tournament either because he didn't get picked off often enough or because he kept getting lucky on the flop. It is true that sometimes a player around whom you usually would build a side game will win a tournament. This is one of the strange attractions of tournament play. An unusual style or strategy occasionally will disrupt the normal flow of the tournament, and will give a new face his moment in the limelight. In the long run, however, a maniacal style of play usually leads to early self-destruction.

Until next time, keep the maniacs at bay so that we can meet at the final table one day soon, perhaps during Bonnie Damiano's Four Queens Classic in Las Vegas.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker. He and Brad Daugherty currently are putting the finishing touches on their new book, Championship Satellite Strategy. You can play online with Tom and Brad almost anytime at PokerStars.com.